— The Corvey Poets Project at the University of Nebraska —

British Poetry of the later Eighteenth and Earlier Nineteenth Centuries

Bibliographical and Contextual Apparatus

John Mitford, The Adventures of Johnny Newcome in the Navy (1818)
John Mitford, My Cousin in the Army, or, Johnny Newcome on the Peace Establishment (1822)
Alfred Thornton, The Adventures of a Post Captain (1820)

Contemporary Reviews of these Volumes

John Mitford, The Adventures of Johnny Newcome in the Navy (1818)

This volume was reviewed twice. According to Ward's Literary Reviews in British Periodicals, a review appeared in the Fireside Magazine for 1 Feb 1819, pp. 64-66. I was unable to locate a copy of this periodical. Neither is there information on this periodical in Alvin Sullivan's British Literary Magazines.

Below is the review from the New Monthly Magazine for 10 October, 1818.

Note: Though this review purports to describe "Johnny Newcome in the Navy," the poem described sounds more like "The Adventures of a Post Captain," which has been attributed to "Alfred Thornton," leading me to believe that "Alfred Thornton" may have been a pen-name used by Mitford. It should also be noted that though the review attributes the poem to John Mitford, the poem was published under the name "Alfred Burton."

Johnny Newcome in the Navy, a Poem.

A work has just appeared under this title by Mr. John Mitford of the Royal Navy, and ornamented with plates designed by the author, and executed under his personal inspection: it is publishing in numbers, three of which have made their appearance. The poem describes "Johnny Newcome" entering the Navy as a midshipman, and traces his progress until he becomes a Post-Captain - all the follies and levities of a British sailor are given ludicrously enough, and his battles are delineated in forcible and glowing language. The loves of "Johnny Newcome" are not the least interesting part, and seem to be felt by the writer most keenly. We have been told that the author served many years with Nelson, and took an active part in the battles of Saint Vincent and the Nile; therefore we give credit, not only to the pictures he displays in verse, but to those flowing from the artist's pencil which are well executed. Landsmen who wish to be introduced to the curious interior of a Man of War, can here see it in a variety of colouring. We have been indebted to Mr. Mitford for some communications of a more scientific nature than the poem before us, and we sincerely wish his "Johnny Newcome" may continue to meet that approbation which in our opinion it is entitled to receive.

John Mitford, My Cousin in the Army, or, Johnny Newcome on the Peace Establishment (1822)

There are no contemporary reviews for this volume

Alfred Thornton, The Adventures of a Post Captain (1820)

There are no contemporary reviews for this volume.

The following obituary appeared soon after Mitford's death.

Like the talented Miss Mitford, the authoress of Rienzi and Tales of our Village, this person is said to have been nearly related to Lord Redesdale and the Historian of Greece; perhaps descended from their great-uncle Samuel, "who," says the Peerage, "married and left issue."

Jack Mitford was originally in the navy, and fought under Hood and Nelson. His name will be remembered in connection with Lady Perceval, in the Blackheath affair, for his share in which he was tried, but acquitted. For many years Mitford has lived by chance, and slept three nights in the week in the open air, when his finances did not admit of his paying threepence for a den in St. Giles's. Though formerly a nautical fop, for the last fourteen years he was ragged and loathsome: he never thought but of the necessities of the moment. Having had a handsome pair of Wellington boots given to him, he sold them for one shilling. The fellow who bought them went and put them in pawn for 15s., and came back in triumph with the money. "Ah!" said Jack, "but you went out in the cold for it." He was a tolerable classic, and a man of varied attainments; and maintained his miserable existence by literary efforts, the memory of which is not worth preserving. Among them was a libellous life of the late Recorder Sir John Sylvester. His largest work was the history of "Johnny Newcome in the Navy," the publisher of which gave him a shilling a day until he finished it. Incredible as it may appear, he lived the whole of this time in Bayswater fields, making a bed at night of grass and nettles; two pennyworth of bread and cheese, and an onion, were his daily food; the rest of the shilling he expended in gin. He thus passed forty-three days, washing his shirt and stockings himself in a pond, when he required clean linen. He edited "The Scourge" and "Bon Ton Magazine," and was latterly employed by publishers of an infamous description. A hundred efforts have been made to reclaim him, but without avail. A printer and publisher took him into his house, and endeavored to render him "decent." For a few days he was sober; and a relative having sent him some clothes, he made a respectable appearance; but he soon degenerated into his former habits; and, whilst editing a periodical called the "Bon Ton Gazette," the printer was obliged to keep him in a place, half kitchen, half cellar, where, with a loose grate tolerably filled, a candle, and a bottle of gin, he passed his days, and, with the covering of an old carpet, his nights, never issuing from his lair but when the bottle was empty. Sometimes he got furious with drink, and his shoes having been taken from him to prevent his migrating, he would then run out without them, and has taken his coat off in winter, and sold it for half a pint of gin. At the time of his death he was editing a penny production, called the "Quizzical Gazette." He wrote the popular modern song, "The King is a true British sailor," and sold it to seven different publishers. Notwithstanding his habits, he was employed by some religious publishers. This miserable man was buried by Mr. Green, of Will's Coffee-house, Lincoln's Inn Fields, who had formerly been his shipmate. He has left a wife and family, but they were provided for by Lord Redesdale.


Prepared by Michael Page, University of Nebraska, December 2004
     © Michael Page, 2004.